Well, it’s time to make another Shamisen. The first one I made out of hard maple wood. This time though, I wanted to go a bit more traditional by using Indian Rosewood (which is like red sanders wood which is trad.) The tricky thing about that is that it’s exotic. . . meaning expensive. I looked all around town and I couldn’t find any. Even the big hardwood warehouse doesn’t carry it (they don’t like to carry exotic woods in case of rotting ‘n such). I was starting to think about making it out of mahagony or cherry wood but then I decided to look online.
Suprisingly (though considering that it was the internet, it wasn’t too suprising), I found several online lumber stores (you might even call it a CyberMill) that sold rosewood. Unfortunately, they never sold it wide enough (4″)
Finally, when hope was getting lost, I finally found this one store called Westpenn Hardwoods which sold a plethora of exotic woods (including Indian Rosewood). Unfortunately, I only needed 3 Board Feet and the minimum amount I had to order was 10 Bf. (roughly $190 including shipping) That was ok though considering that good instrument kits (at least mandolin an guitar) cost over $500. Plus with the extra 7 board feet, I could make a banjo or even another Shamisen out of it.
So, 50 pounds of wood will be hauled to my door. . . sometime.
hey big K! long time, huh? i just got back from egypt, which was awesome. good to see your site up and redesigned! looks really good.